I woke up abruptly in the middle of the night. At 1:03 A.M.
To the sound of a chirping cricket. One single cricket. Somewhere inside my house.
I hate crickets.
Okay, I don’t actually hate crickets. When they’re outside.
But I am not a fan of one lone cricket singing an opera at the top of his lungs from somewhere inside my house in the middle of the night.
It is the worst.
One lone cricket chirping makes a very loud noise. It’s quite distracting. And utterly annoying.
There was no way I could ignore that sound. Not even noise-cancelling headphones could drown out that racket! And there was no way I would be able to sleep until the bothersome sound was silenced. So, I set out to locate the cricket and silence the sound. By any means necessary.
I followed the chirping down the hallway and into the kitchen. I immediately knew where that cricket was hiding. Under the refrigerator.
Of course that’s where he was hiding! At 1:03 A.M. While my husband was sleeping.
Lucky me.
So, what did I do? I moved the refrigerator. By myself. In the middle of the night.
That was fun.
Let me tell you, it took some fancy maneuvering. And the way that refrigerator squeaked, I’m surprised it didn’t wake up everyone in the house! I managed to move it about 8 inches from the wall. I shone a flashlight into the dark space and it revealed just what I suspected.
One single cricket.
I quickly sprang into action, grabbed a shoe, whispered “Say your prayers Mr. Cricket,” and proceeded to eliminate the source of the chirping.
Ahh…blissful silence!
Until I pushed the refrigerator back into place. And then the squeaking commenced. But only for a moment. I returned to bed with a smile on my lips and the sweet sound of silence in my ears. Getting rid of that noisy cricket helped me get some sleep.
In much the same way, removing noisy distractions from my life allows me to focus on God. But I have to be intentional. Tuning out chattering voices, turning off unnecessary distractions, and eliminating annoying noise brings a sweet silence that allows me to hear the voice of God.
And that’s a sound I welcome. Even at 1:03 A.M.
“Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God.” Psalm 5:8